


On The Radio

by thewhiterose3



Series: Exceptions [2]
Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-28 20:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewhiterose3/pseuds/thewhiterose3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are only so many times that you can explain away bites, claw marks, and stings before your veterinarian girlfriend starts to get suspicious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Radio

In the end, it isn’t Juliette being in danger that leads to their break up, it’s him. Nick recognizes foreshadowing when he hears it. He can disengage enough to notice as its happening, even in his own creepy ass life. And when Aunt Marie told him to let Juliette go so she wouldn’t end up getting hurt by the myriad of _others_ that would soon encompass his life, he saw the very real possibility and fought it. True, he didn’t propose like he’d been planning, but Nick wasn’t going to let this new turn in his life ruin all that he’d built. He wasn’t going to stop trying just because it was difficult. So he took precautions, didn’t bring his work home. He even took inconceivably long and circuitous routes from the department to their house. There was a part of him that knew this wouldn’t actually deter someone who tracked him by scent, but it felt good. It felt like he was making an effort.

But what ended up driving them apart wasn’t something unimaginable following Nick home at all. It wasn’t the big bad trying to get to Nick via the so very vulnerable, innocent, and ignorant Juliette. It was the bad ones that came straight at Nick in the middle of a case and left the marks to prove it. There are only so many times that you can explain away bites, claw marks, and stings before your veterinarian girlfriend starts to get suspicious. At first it was an easy white lie, a suspect’s pet got out of control, tried to protect his shifty, nervous owner. It had happened before. But Nick could see the questions in her eyes after the third bitemark of varying size in a two week period. And then there were the claws and the stings and the simple but classic bashing of his head to various unyielding nature treatment.

And then he had to try desperately to make sure that she and Hank didn’t interact. Because if they compared notes and concerns and questions then Nick’s life could get really complicated really really quickly. Because trying to explain to either of them that there were monsters inside some people, well that wasn’t surprising in the slightest. As detectives, he and Hank saw that everyday. But the step further is when it stopped, that some people were simply a different species, could literally morph from human into _other_ form, that only people like them and Nick could see it. Well, they’d make him go see a shrink, many shrinks, maybe even take him off duty. And Nick didn’t even know if he could prove, really wasn’t sure about the whole who saw what thing. He knew the general populace didn’t see when the _others_ slipped, but would they see Eddie turn his fingers to claws? Would they even see a completely changed _other_ or would it just be a naked and inexplicably ferocious human doing damage that defied the laws of physics?

So, it started with sympathy. Honey, here, let me patch you up, I'll send you a bill later like with Hank's bee stings early on. Then, the confusion and suspicion happened. Because what do you say to "were you attacked by giant porcupines? because unless I am sadly mistaken these are humongous porcupine quills that you've got stuck in your shoulder." And that’s when the little white lies became larger than life stories. And Nick's always been shit at minding that line between plausible lies and go for broke or go home exaggeration. And it’s worse now because his internal level for what’s really fucked up and what’s just normal fucked up but plausible is a little broken now that he sees people actually transform into creatures he never knew existed on a regular basis.

And then there was greater suspicion and worrying and long considering looks and eventually, Nick just stopped coming home when he got injured on the Grimm. Instead, he'd stay at Eddie's. Eddie would put together some herbal wrap or other to counteract whatever poison or natural excretions (and why, why can't they just be sharp and pointy without the further unpleasantness). And it was good. Monroe's couch was actually fantastically comfortable and he slept more securely knowing that his blutbad was in the house. For some reason, knowing that he was in Eddie's territory, that if something should go wrong, Eddie would unleash all that he kept so carefully under wraps. Just knowing that he didn’t have to protect some innocent, but instead there was someone around who could and would protect him - well, it was relaxing. And Nick found himself better rested than he had in ages after a night snuggling up on Eddie's worn couch.

Afterwards, Nick would wake up slowly and securely to the wonderful smell of coffee brewing and Eddie making breakfast. And only then would he realize that he somehow slept through morning Pilates and Monroe’s shower and getting dressed. It amazed Nick everytime that he could be the same person that flinched everytime a dog howled at home with Juliette, but could sleep through almost anything at Monroe's. So Nick would sleepily lumber into the kitchen only to find a plate set out for him and Eddie grumbling about stupid Grimms and their stupid destiny getting them injured and their stupid scent filling his house and it was just so damn warm and comfortable and honest. Nick thinks his favorite part was probably the complete and utter honesty. Juliette never complained about anything, just gave him long lingering looks that made him rack his brain over what he did cause that look, why it made him feeling so guilty. But with Monroe, he never had to hide anything, knew what he was thinking because of the running monologue and it was god damn refreshing and so very easy.

Once Nick had retrieved the cup of coffee and began eating, Monroe would segue his monologuing to address Nick. Checking out the wound of the day, changing the bandage, harassing him again for being stupid and trying to talk it out with a clearly dangerous and ill intentioned creature. And Nick usually didn’t have to say a word, nothing was expected of him except to be completely himself. And shit if that wasn’t the most comforting thing Nick can remember experiencing. Just the knowledge that he didn’t have to hide a single damn thing made him want to hunker down and just never leave Monroe’s home. This tiny section of the world filled with warmth and snark and cello music and irony of all ironies, humanity in the very best sense of the word. And that want, that deep yearning to just let go and let Eddie fuss over him should have been his first clue.

But it took that stupid Adele song on the radio for Nick’s conscious mind to catch up to the reality of his life. He tends to just leave it on the local mix station for news, weather, and background noise, but then that phrase seeped into his thoughts, completely unbidden.   _Yeah, she’s got it all, but is that really what you want?_ And that’s when Nick’s brain reengaged and he realized that he was parked outside Monroe’s house. He’d just finished up a particularly gruesome case that didn’t have a single iota of Grimm-sense needed. It was just a certifiably insane jealous boyfriend who decided that stabbing the man who he thought his girlfriend was cheating on him with was a better option than asking questions. The kid really did break though, stabbing the guy 37 times and putting his girlfriend in the hospital. And talking with him, trying to reason with him was incredibly hard. Nick blames stupid cop movies for making the kid paranoid, for believing that suicide by cop was even an option. It didn’t come to that, but still, he’s just exhausted. Drained body and mind from a case that lasted much too long with far too little sleep.

And if Nick’s honest with himself, he doesn’t want to go home to Juliette. He doesn’t want to tiptoe around the gruesome bits. He doesn’t want to pretend that it was just your usual day at work in an attempt to spare his girlfriend who always seems like the pillar, the very epitome of innocence. She gets called out of bed for emergency surgery on kittens and he gets calls in the middle of the night for serial killers. Letting it out, getting that catharsis that he craves with her just feels like he’s damaging something. Telling Juliette about the cruelties of the world feels like he’s spoiling something pure and he just can’t, can’t make himself do it. In the beginning, it seemed like a wonderful idea, go home and pretend that the fucked up world didn’t exist. But it does and now it’s even more fucked up and he just wants to scream and let it out and not push it down anymore.

He wants to talk about how he feels sorry for the fucked up kid. Feels sorry that he put so much of himself into that one relationship that even the idea that it could be failing was enough to break him. How he feels guilty for empathizing with someone so clearly pathologically in the wrong, but how he can’t help it. He wants to uselessly talk how this kids life could have been better if only this or that. He wants to fix all the broken if only in his head and he wants to share that with someone. And there’s a voice inside Nick’s mind that whispers that he’s underestimating Juliette, that she can handle it. She can handle the fucked up world bits even if she can never know about the _other_ bits. Nick knows this but just can’t be the one to tarnish her purity, her perceived innocence, even if its all only in his head.

Because yeah, she really does have it all. Juliette is the perfect girl for a normal guy, hell even for your everyday cop. But she’s not who Nick wants anymore. Nick wants to be able to let his guard down. Wants to stop being responsible for ten damn seconds and just breathe, just let himself be every part of himself at once. And as much as he loves Juliette, there is only one person in the wide world that he trusts enough to do that with and it isn’t her.

**Author's Note:**

> So, guys, I swear that something is actually going to physically happen in one of these fics any day now. Sometime soon, I swear.
> 
> Disclaimer: Not mine, none of it, not even the two song references. Never will be. Blah blah woof woof.
> 
> Both criticism and love welcomed.


End file.
